Harvard's 12-year-old white elephant may finally make good this year if, as expected, state officials at last give the green light to the University's embattled $350 million Medical Area Total Energy Plant (MATEP). University officials say they fully expect to bring the plant, located near the Harvard Medical School, on line this fall after a Massachusetts environmental commission completes hearings.

The facility already delivers steam and chilled water to a handful of Harvard-affiliated hospitals, but nearby residents have blocked use of its diesel generators to create electric power because they contend the engines emit carcinogens. Robert H. Scott, Harvard's administrative vice president, says an August 24 report from the state's hearing officer indicates "no problem of any kind" with approval, although the University may be forced to abide by some operating restrictions.

Big Buildings

Closer to home, the new $7 million Belfer wing of the Kennedy School of Government will officially open its doors on the weekend of Oct. 13. A public ceremony on Saturday will highlight the opening ceremonies, but the line-up of guest speakers--rumored to include some very big draws--is being kept under wraps.

In the meantime, most professors and administrators have already set up housekeeping in the new building, and classes will reportedly be held in the wing beginning this fall.

Construction dust is still settling on the other side of the Square, where construction of the Fogg Art Museum's new Sackler wing remains on schedule and is about a year away from its scheduled October, 1985 completion date, said John M. Rosenfield, acting director of the museum.

The wing already boasts the Fogg's Oriental Library, which has been moved to the new building, and several other collections are scheduled for relocation later his year, he added.

However one architectural accoutrement that had been planned for the museum addition will not make an appearance Earlier this summer, neighborhood opposition led the University to abandon its plans to build an overhead bridge connecting the main museum building to its new $15 million annex.

The College's Honeymooners

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, whose circulation has flowed smoothly, if somewhat sluggishly, since the argumentative sixties, will receive a hefty injection of new blood this fall. In the most notable of a series of administrative changes, 11-year veteran Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky this July handed the torch to 40-year-old wunderkind A. Michael Spence. In addition to learning the ropes in his new role, the former chairman of the Economic Department is acting as his own associate deans for undergraduate and graduate education.

These two positions are as yet unfilled after the departure of Sidney Verba '53 and Edward L. Keenan Jr. '57-the former leaving the undergraduate post for the University Librarianship, the latter returning to the History Department after seven years at the helm of the grad school.

Verba's office is literally empty, but Spence has named Peter S. McKinney, an administrator in the Division of Applied Sciences, to serve as acting administrative dean of the grad school for the academic year. The words "administrative dean" are understood to mean that Spence is reserving the crucial grad school decisions for himself.

Further evidence of Spence's interest in the GSAS is a high-level faculty committee he is in the process of appointing to study the GSAS. This committee, to be headed by Leverett Professor of Physics Karl Strauch, will provide the first comprehensive look at the GSAS since 1969.

Meanwhile, the 18-member Faculty Council, the Faculty's elected steering committee, gets back to business this fall with a half-dozen new members after elections in May, but no pressing items on its agenda. In fact, a September 19 meeting, scheduled to deal with any matters of immediate concern, was cancelled.

The new memers are: Associate Professor Diana L. Eck (Sanskrit and Indian Studies); Professor David Herlihy (History); Associate Professor Andrew H. Knoll (Organismic and Evolutionary Biology); Professor David H.P. MayburyLewis (Anthropology); Professor Zeph Stewart (Classics); and Professor Robert M. Woollacott (Organismic and Evolutionary Biology).